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BOOK REVIEWS

Towards the end of the 1960s the The Tribal Predicament proceedings to also acknowledge the Indian Institute of Advanced Study limited theoretical and methodo­ organized a seminar on the tribal JAGANA TH PA THY logical developments of the last couple situation in India. The proceedings of decades. Being oblivious to the fact were subsequently edited by Dr K.S. CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN TRIBAL SOCIETY that no leading discourse or practical Singh, the distinguished scholar and implications have emerged, despite administrato r. As the volume E DITED BY MRIN AL MIRI India's having the second largest encompassed the whole gamut of number of anthropologists in the Indian Institute of Advru:tced Study, Shimla, 1993, pp.ix + 578, Rs.SSO tribal problems at both regional and world and its immense ethnic national levels,. an entire generation diversity, will certainly prevent us of concerned researchers, adminis­ persisting and emerging issues in the and ideological perspectives on the from engagin g in any earnest trators and activists have had repeated tribal scenario through another one hand and, on the other, a growing academic or activist enterprise. At the dialogue with its contents. It continues seminar. The book under review realization that tribal scholarship has same time some of the classical to be in demand and has already gone contains around forty p apers immense potential to contribute to methods of intensive fieldwork are through three reprints. The overall presented at that seminar. Although overcoming environmental, cultural degenerating into insensitive, quick thrust of the volume, with a couple of it covers as broad a range as did the and cognitive crises. Besides, as Dr and crude quantification and exceptions, was to grasp the tribal earlier volume-and, indeed, incorpo­ Singh indicates, there is a change from statistical jugglery. With honourable economies, cultures, politics, policies rates a couple of new dimensions-a the perspective of tribal homogeneity exceptions, tribal researchers are so and administration so as to fo rmulate shift of emphasis and focus C!iJ1 be and regional specificity to a complex alienated that they have never lobbied such integrated social and economic discerned. The assumed universal differentiated and stratified tribal for nor endorsed the genuine development strategies as would model of development/ moderni­ scenario. The shifts, however, should assertions and struggles of the tribal eventually integrate the tribal peoples zation and the notion of nation­ not be construed as any radical depar­ peoples. Conceivably this is the critical into the. national 'mainstream' and building through cultural integration ture. There is in fact a conspicuous reason for the near-stagnation in tribal thereby consolidate the Indian nation­ are transformed by the perspective of continuity in tribal studies. research. state. the compatibility of diverse cultural In their recapitulation of the The optimism of the past exercise In late 1991, after nearly a quarter practices with a multiplicity of models diversification of tribal studies in and the recognition of tribal and century, the liAS aptly decided to of socio-cultural development. Per­ India, one would have expected the review achievements and"failures and haps this reflects changing theoretical editors of the present seminar contd. on page 6 contd. from page 4 because of my Marxist outlook but Basanti' s insistence on having a proper BS: It is because they love their this is not deliberately done. Once marriage is perhaps a universal weak­ men so intensely. It is for their men's had fallen in love with a beautiful, you pick up a character from amongst ness in every woman. She feels happiness. So it is both. Inwardly the accomplished and highly educated the poor people, naturally the entire psychologically secure if she is woman may be resentful. She may girl but was being forced to live with treatment has to be viewed in the properly married, the result of ages­ feel that the person she loves does not a girl who was physically clumsy, context of the struggle of her class long belief in a proper marriage belong to her totally. Also, Deenu is virtually illitera~e and who had very also. I have picked her up from the ceremony. Men, whether of the middle an unreliable kind of person. There's few 'personal charms to boast of. But str~et-from the migrant labourers. class or otherwise, do not give as much very little consistency about him. she was brought up in a traditional She belongs to that class. Her struggle importance to the ceremony part as VR: Finally, would you regard family. She was always looking up to is partly the struggle of that class as women d o. There are other traditional yourself as a feminist writer? And her husband to give her his attention, such. But the novel does not merely influences also upon Basanti. She had whom would you rate the greatest to find accommodation in his heart. I portray class struggle. It portrays a been living in a compact family. She among the Hindi novelists writing wanted to show the contrast between woman from that class struggling for would not like to live a wayward, about women? the two girls and place this boy in a survival, building her future. She rudderlG6s life with Deenu. So it is not BS: I do not regard myself as a natural situation-rather, convincing. imbibes the qualities of tha,t class­ a question of morality so much as one feminist writer. I think that in people Thul Thul is a secondary character. endurance, courage, and such initia­ of physical, personal and psycholo­ whose writing is socially oriented, She meets with a rather painful end, tive as that class has. I picked her up gical security for the woman, attention is bound to go towards the does not assert herself. Being placed from that basti taking into account her VR: The influence of TV and the injustice being done to women. I liked in a joint family she at least has a peculiar personal situation. media on the working classes is a Yashpal's Dim;a. I translated it into corner to live in, her situation is some ­ VR: I would like you to take these significcmt motif in Basanti. Basanti English. I also translated a few short what similar to that of her eldest sister­ two questions together. Do the prob­ exists simultaneously in a harshly stories of his. He wanted me to in-law whose husband has gone off to lems of morality in Basanti have realistic world and also in a m~ke­ translate Divya. Marxism enables one Germany. . anything to do with a diasporic believe world of film heroes and to fix the individual in a social context. VR: This combination of gender situation-the shifting, uncertain heroines. This is also true of the heroine Why, even earlier, Bharatendu and and class oppression in Basanti is very future of migrant labour in big cities? of your short story, "Radha Anu­ Pre~ch~d a~opt ed a social pers­ interesting indeed. Where does your Secondly, Basanti seems to posit a radha." Where would you place pective m theu writings, although mphasis lie-On structural inequali­ difference between male and female Basanti .- a movie-smitten teenager Premchand tilll925-26wasGandh·Ian , ~ies or on gender oppressior: or both? notions of morality. Take Basanti's or a realist? not Marxist. Sh aratchandra was n t . b o a Would you acknowledge the influence insistence on observing the forms of BS: You are very right. Radha M arxJst . ut he deait very f Premchand or Yashpal or any other' marria'ge with Deenu while his silence was another girl from the same basti, symp~thetJcally with women. With ~riter on your handling of such is proof of his dishonest intentions. In though less of a fighter than Basanti. Marxism this crystallizes into an themes? Or is it due to your own fact a gendered notion of morality VR: This pertains to the accommo­ awareness of class and gender radical left leanings? seems to stretch through many of your dative spirit in your heroines­ conflicts. BS: So far as influences go, they novels. Would you coinment? Basanti in relation toRukmi, Kunto in ;,... in the subconscious; and if BS: Poor people do not have the relation to Sushma, etc. Would you rem au• f middle-class kind of prudery so far as regard this as a sign of weakness, a Dr Vijaya Ramaswami is a Fellow of the you 1 o ok at it from the angle o class. .ct Basanti belongs to the exp1 Ol- morals are concerned. But Basanti's compromise with the inevitable or ·Institute of Advanced Study. She eonfl J 1 • • ted class. The impressiOn people get 1s moral attitude differs from Deenu's. their magnanimity? · a~knowledges the help of Professor Ja1dev in organizing this inteNiew. -summerhill ..

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BOOK REVIEWS

contd. from page 5 of nation-building, have together de­ obstacles to their development and consolidation of ethnic identities in recognized the tribals' customary assimilation into the 'mainstream' and tribal India in a historical perspective. regional specificities within the rights over land and land-based hence are best sent to the morgue. A.C. Sinha discusses the complexity framework of the n ation~s tate have resources and their cultural Only two papers deal with the of conversion of the Ao Naga to given rise to a confusion in which the complexes, and consequently have gender question. Exceptionally lucid Christianity and unique persistence autonomy of socio-cultural space has endangered their survival and socio­ and striking is the paper by Govind of their identity. Writing· about the been placed within the macro­ cultural reproduction. A few authors Kelkar and Dev Nathan, who argue Oraon immigrants to Assam tea structural complexes of articulation argue for the immense significance of that owing to the internalization of plantations, Sharma and Kar describe of dominant interests. The co-existence self-awareness, assertion and legiti­ d ominant patriarchal values, the their limited cultural adaptation. of tribal and non-tribal structures is mate struggles for economic, cultural limited land rights of women tend to Areeparampil describes the various found to be relatively stable, to the and linguistic survival. be further redu-ced. The rise in witch­ socio-religious movements among the advantage of the regionally and Javeed's paper pursues the hunting is one of the manifestations Ho. The Jharkhand movement in globally dominant forces. Within this que?tion ·of the of the attempts colonial days and post-colonial times matrix much more serious intellectual conditions under to reduce is analysed by Basu Mullick and input is required to substantiate the which diverse the book· is· absqrbing and women's access Sharma, respectively. Danda does a self-congratulatory assertion of Dr cultural identi­ valuable.... it will certainly to and control good job of surveying the socio­ Singh that "Integration is a continuing ties aggregate encourage further workin the over land. Geeta poli~cal movements across the regions process in a nation- state ...and it is for themselves and com.ing years. It is virtually a p oints to the of tr1bal concentration and outlines all of us to see that it does not stop" establish trans­ need for tribal compulsory l'eading for all the ~alientlimi ta fi ons of the European (p ..6). The assumption that the creation ethnic conscious­ dev elopmen t nahan-state model. of tribal states in the north-eastern ness. But to strateg i es Gupta's data suggest that there region resolved the tribal crisis is far presume that "tl1e cultural question is wherein concern for women and are inter- and intra-tribal disparities from established. The increased im-mediately a basis of politics" (p. ecology receive appropriate attention. of different kinds and advocates public-sector investment in the tri.bal 19) may undercut the issues of the There are a number of papers on incorporation of that aspect in tribal areas does not necessarily convey econo-mic and political ·subjugation continuity and change in land rights planning. Mathur's appraisal of tribal acceptance of the 'mainstream' and of the indigenous peoples and their and management in the north-east, development programmes in Kerala the domination of the ruling classes. ethos. Saraswati's conceptual and on the role of the Sixth Schedule. is informative. Mehta offers a rather In addition, the tribal problem is likely framework of tribal life-style being Professor Ganguly's elucidation of the overdrawn critique of anthropo­ to be exacerbated with globalization within the broad premises of the motive forces of agrarian dyn¥J1ics logists-cum-plannersand that without and liberalization. The emerging theory of cultural relativism cannot and irri.pediments is welcome. Criti­ providing any conceptually sound scenario thus demands a logical and fully grapple with the qualitative cally reviewing the impact of the underpinning. substantive review of the Western d yn amics em anating from the official jh umia rehabilitation Despite these few critical model of the nation-state. Howsoever dialectics of endogenou s and · programmes in Tripura, Malabika comments and remarks, the book is grand and pervasive the m odel may exogenous m otive forces. Besides, to suggests a n alternative and just absorbing and valuable. With its vast be, its mere repetition does not help assume that 'technocratic ·selection' · strategy. Ramakrishan rightly asserts coverage of the heterogeneity of us comprehend the d ynamics of "takes away the cultural freedom" (p. that the future of sustainable theoreti_cal and methodological endemic dissension or provide for 31) is to deny the multiplicity of development in the Himalayan perspectives and policy prescriptions, alternative resolutions. Instead it technology and the futuristic drive of ecosystem depends on compre­ backed by some of the best minds in asphyxiates intellectual creativity. · tribal life-styres. Sujata succinctly hending in a multidisciplinary way Indian tribal studies, it will certainly th e complex local cultures of . Professor Mrinal Miri's call for a points out that the so-called seculari~t encourage furtherworkm. · thecommg . dialectical interaction between the policy of the state has ignored the role management and on the full . ye ar~. It is virtually a comp ulsory dominantmodernscientificvisionand and organizing principles of religion participation of local people · in· the read~g for all those interested not the customary indigenous circular in tribal social and cultural mc;ttrixes planning and execution of policies for only m the tribal question but also in vision to fathom reality and change and has ther~by eroded their cultural ecodevelopment. human dignity. direction towards the benefit of all is Professor Roy-Burman's paper existence. More or less in the same Professor Jaganath p h timely. But this is too demanding an vein, Raman argues for preserving covers almost all critical spheres of . at Yt eaches sociology at the South Gujarat University, Surat. exercise for the N orthern ized the rich religious and cultural heritage ·the tribal situation with a wealth of references. U.P. Sir1ha handles tribal intellectuals of the metropolises and of the tribal peoples. P~ofessor Shankar Gopal Tuipule who there is hardly any contribution on Fernandes establishes that th-e demography, while A. Basu'sconcern dJed on 3~ August 1994, spent three this count in the volume, Professor foragers' and swidden cultivators' is tribal health. Chaudhuri's paper years at Shunla as a fellow. During his Miri's attempt at a philosophical treatment of forests has, in recent covers tribal health, culture and · ~tay at the Institute he worked on an redefinition of the concept of identity years, tended to shift from being environment together and calls for an un~ortant book, The Divine Name in the ln~wn . Tradition (published by liAS is stimulating; and this r·eviewer treated as a renewal resource under exploration of the positive aspects of Shtml a) . ' communal management to a mere raw tribal systems of medicine and health appreciates his alert statement that An emiJ:ent scholar of Marathi lan­ the " ...moralforce of ' allegiance to the material for the commodity market care. Salil Basu too considers the major guage and . h~erature , Professor Tu,l ule tribe' becomes prone to exploitation and individual profit. Consequently health problems of the tribal peoples had an abtdmg interest in the lifepand and notes the Q.istressing responses works of Maharashtrian . by forces which have nothing to do the egalitarian ethos and practices of This · samt-poets. with this allegiance. [The quest for tribal societies have been drastically from the state and the NGOs. _mterest was given an added filli identity] becomes the .front for altered. Saldhana traces the process of Five . eminent linguists have as by .hts association with the mystic an~ motivations which range from self­ forest denudation to colonial times. many theoretical papers related to phllosopher Professor R 0 R d aggrandizement of a few to economic Mahapatra regrets that despite change and continuity in tribal of :It~ retiring as Prof~ss~r :~ ~~ad . e .epartment of Marathi Poona gain and political power" (p. 174). constitutional guarantees, massive languages and their association with U ruverstty Prof ' tim ' essor Tulpule spent Refreshingly, quite a f!?w of the developmental and environmental ethnicity. This~ very welcome and berea tthe~u.th AsialnstituteatHeidel­ papers implicitly or explicitly testify projects have extinguished the tribals' one hopes for more substantive studies wo~ a~ Ytstting Professor. His other that the unilateral imposition of an customary rights in land and forest in this field in the coming years. tur k~ncl~~e C,lassica/ Maratlli Litera- individualist epistemology and legal resources with impunity. In contrast, Several papers consider culture !?· · ystiCISm 111 Medieval India and TI te Great Poet · ' framework, of m ega-development Sarkar holds that the tribals' re1igion , ethnicity an d tri:b al Hi d . -smnts of Malrarastltra. customary rights stand as formidable movements. Dasguptaenumerates the In~· eath IS deeply mourned by the projects, and of swTeptitious strategies tan Institute of Advanced Study. a Summerhill------

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BOOK REVIEWS

Oberoi's book is a welcome addition DIVERSITY AND UNIFORMITY IN THE SIKH TRADITION bibliography is J.P.S. Uberoi, whose to the corpus of studies on Panjab and Birinder Pal Singh structural analysis of the Sikh symbols the Sikh history. This ambitious project has advanced our understanding of took 14 years to be encapsulated in THE CONSTRUCTION OF RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES: the Sikh religious tradition and its 426 densely written pages, besides CULTURE, IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY IN THE SIKH TRADITION relations with the dominant religions other accessories spread over 90 odd of the subcontinent. Harjot Oberoi . pages. It is not simply an interpreta­ Probably it is a 'slip'; because it tive discourse on Sikhism but more a does not fit into the author's inter­ 'story' of real people who lived real Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1994, pp. 426+90. Rs. 475/ -. pretation of Guru Arjan Dev's verse lives. They not only practised the new in the Adi Granth, which is stated to religion but synthesized it with their represented a view which was specificity such that the 'causal' be a "reinforcement of Kabir's verse" own socio-cultural and historical re­ ·damaging to the Sanatani Sikhs and connections becom e distinctly in the same text (p.-57). The popular ality. their plurality. They asserted the manifest? An episteme like the mode interpretation of this verse supports · Itisa 'story'becauseOberoistarts primacy of uniformity over diversity, of production is an overarching the distinctiveness and separate the narration with a few actors and monotheism against poly.theism, concept involving over-determi­ identity of the Sikhs, which is also variables which gradually become acknowledging the ten gurus and not nation. And the difficulty lies precisely Uberoi's contention. But if one goes complex, well cut-out parts later any living one, bowing only before in isolating the effect of an episteme by the author's argument then the linked with each other for clarity, the Guru Granth and no other. and vice versa. question arises why anew and similar obtaining a moral at the end. Such scripture and visiting the gurudwara I wonder if some scholars who verse was included. The incorporation 'cut-outs' and the 'drawing of morals' only, not any temple, mazar or pir, etc. "alleged that the philosophical found­ of Kabir's verse meant that the Guru make the text read able and intelligible. This· is the episteme of uniformity ations of research were weak and that had put its seal on it. This se~ms It is a strength of this volume that it whiCh dominated and gradually his methodology was full of . another grey zont: where Oberoi's does not induce boredom and fatigue. eliminated the episteme of diversity. loopholes" (Reeta Sharma, the Tribune, critics would find a case against him True to its subtitle, Oberoisituates The Singh Sabhas thus December1,1994)vvere for his "misinterpretation ofsi.khfum". the history of the Sikhs in the 18th and formed subscribed to drawing attention to One objection may be raised 19th centuries. This study of religion the Khalsa tradition ltJs not simply this feature. They have against the protagonists of the ques­ combines the insights of history and now spearheaded by a,Q i n~erpreta- -. also accused him and tion "Who is a Sikh?" This is a wrong anthropology (p. 425). The theories the Tat Khalsa. Theori­ the University of British question to which ~ere cannot be a and methodologies of the two zed b y the intellec­ -1 . ti, ye di~cou.,rs~;;~ Columbia for not right answer. If the same is asked of a disciplines were made converged for tuals, these ideas were 'on Sikhism , having taken into Hindu or a Christian, do we get a the understand~g of"soc ial construc­ propagated by the ,but more.a consideration the fact different answer? Oberoi too seems to tion of meaning and the transform­ institutions of learn­ that"theSikhreligion's be remotely concerned with the I . ation of religious and cultural ideology ing, the gurudwara, 'story' of real research was a sensitive relevance and genuineness of such a of .religions" of Panjab. He has also the Sabhas and the people who matter" (ibid.) without query. Hence the dichotomies of explored the issue of why a certain print media. referring to the "sensi­ "diversity and uniformity", of configu1ation of religious thinking ln the words of the lived real tivities" that have been "Sanatan Sikhs and the Tat Khalsa" stays stable over a period before author himself, "This lives. hurt by this book. and a long exposition of mu ltipl~ undergoing change, sometimes book is a study of this A pointer towards traditions and pluralist activities, a radical. · transitional process: of . m ethodology above variety of faiths and cults among the Oberoi undertakes the study of how one paradigm or vision of the does not imply that Oberoi has not peasantry and early Sikh tradition. Sikh religious tradition in three world was replaced by another" (p. done justice to the thesis he has built. The situation today, d espite sections-Diversity, Uniformity and 25). Two important questions follow Covering the broad canvas from Guru modernity and m ilitancy, is n o A New Episteme, which are epistemes which need to be explored in social Nanak to the early 20th century, he different. Ifpot Sakhi Sarvar, there is in the Foucauldian sense, best suited theory: (a) how to conceptualize a has meticulously gone about raising Gugga at Cfihapar, a me/a which runs to unders tanding the change in certain constellation of religious questions, providing explanation for five d ays round the clock. I question. As is clear from the practices and rituals and (b) how to stage by stage, such that to an outsider witnessed this mega-event for two sequence, the initia~ p hase. ~as account for religious change and (non-Sikh) the arguments become successive years in the early 1990s pluralistic, full of diversity, combrnrng transformation. And Oberoi thinks clear and the agencies (individual/ when milit.ancy was at its height. So the new1 y emerged Sikhism with local that these can be answered well using collective) involved and shifts in much was the terror that no political and regional traditions, cutting across epistemes (Foucault), practice of positions and ideologies. become party dared camp in the mela against ot only minor sects and cults but also human agency (Bourdieu) and schema manifest. The reader can without th~ militants' dictates. But people ~e major religions of the region.. He of intentional action (Ortner). The · strain connect the arguments and carry enJoyed the me/a in .'its true spirit'. gues explicitly that the early elites three m odes of action - routine them forward. That is why, at times, Mo~eo~er, ~e urban literati, despite ~~ the community, intelle~tu a l an.d activities, intentional action and the details given seem too many to an theu 1denhty consciousness, are praxis- can be "m eaning-fully insider. But since the book is not re1 I.g l·o us , d efinitely th..e onzed th1s equally pluralistic. They would visit lurality of the Sikh tradition to ensure expanded and synthesized with merely addressed to the insiders their any sacred place p rovided th oexistence w ith other sects, Foucault's episteme", establishing a presence is legitimate. . that their wishes would PItS c . . I be li~ve d ~~ unities and relig~ons . t was a dialectical relationship between an The author's awareness of differ­ realized. cornrn. not only to mlnlffilZe· · · con flic t episteme and human practice. How ent approaches in political economy, . The author is aware of the comp­ devKe 'thin ~ toenfolditsopponentSWI an epistem e rises and dissolves is an anthropology and sociology, and of l exit~ of ~ interpretation involving outa1 so th .. . ·sm. It is here, I think, at.cntics important concern of this work. It can the interpretation of culture and texts the d1alectic of the internal dynamics sik.hib . who hold him guilty of be shown best with data from Sikh is reflected in the analysis of the data and forces affecting the Sikh f 0 erm . . ~~ternal 0 n tation and dtstortlon of history (p. 30). collected from all over the globe. The tradlhon. He writes, "In s um, a ·sreprese . ml f' d his formulation most I think a question of methodo­ texts, primary a nd secondary, sepa~ate S~kh identity cannot be facts may m logical import can be raised here. How government and private records in ex_p ~ amed ~rmp l y by referring to the vulne~able. d formulation is closely is this dialectic between an episteme English and vernacular languages, Bntlsh pohcy of divide and rule, or Hlssecon . . and human practice to be delineated haye been used extensively. But d t the previous one. That 15, rn 0 JjJlke . century a new elite and elucidated with characteristic conspicuous by hls absence in the long the followmg . contd. on page 8 --summerhill 8

BOOK REVIEWS

A.N. Dwivedi's monograph on A.K. being given to the other. Even if one Ramanujan's poetic art is a detailed Poetry of Isolation and Alienation does not know Kannada, one should study of the background, themes, K. Raghavendra Rao make some effort to get a general idea frames and craftsmanship of this of his creative work in Kannada. precious poet, who passed away in THE POETIC ART OF A.K. RAMANUJAN But then one should not ask a his second home, the USA, in July A.N. Dwivedi short monograph like this to do too 1993. I want to begin this review with many jf?bs, and one must appraise it a poignant reference to my own· ?n its own terms, accepting its sell- connection with the poet. Though I Indian Writers Series, B.R. Publishing Corporation, Delhi, 1995. 1m posed parameters. From this never had occasion to know him very eminently reasonable and legitimate well, we knew about each other as major and more sustained poetry. rooted in this self-chosen destiny. Was perspective, A.N. Dwivedi's critical persons hailing from the same Rarnanujan preferred to accept this Rarnanujan opportunistic, eating his monograph succeeds very well. It is a Kannada cultural-linguistic region. I fate and invest his resources in cake and still having it, making his painstaking and meticulous study of had met him a couple of times in chiselled, controlled and elegantly omelette without breaking the egg? I the text, and as such it is bound to be Dharwad, once in Chicago in 1968, clever miniature masterpieces. But the don't think so, and yet the possibility invaluable to professional students and later more recently in Hampi as a enormous limitation and keeps on haunting his friends and and teachers of that nebulously fellow-editor of an anthology of exhaustibility of his them a tic admirers. problematic terrain called Indian modem Kannada poetry in English resources arose out of his inability to The strongest feature of this ~riting in English or Indo-Anglian translation, sponsored by ·the Kannada tackle head-on, with violence and volume iS the detailed analyses of literature. The publishers deserve our University in Hampi. . In fact Rama­ rashness, the violence and rashness indi:vidual poems, and its weakest gratitude for sponsoring a series which nujan, Rarnachandra Sharma and I, that structure most point is its should enable us to make sense of the the three joint editors of the volume, of human life. His ;t:9·~r . · !: i~rri~ i~Bi: i'h~ · g~h~r~itt,: ~~:~~~7te :~ contemporary Indian intellectual were to have the last round of editorial · inability, for landscape, both discursive and non­ meetings in Bangalore to finalize the instance, to deal :~~llmit~tions th~t owivedi's'\ appreciation or discursive, under A.N. Dwivedi's manuscript in July 1993, a week after with evil is part of study pqints up should be critique of the general editorship. the day of his death. We had to finish thesarnestory.The seen as rooted in this poetic corpus as a our work without the benefit of closest he comes to whole. His overall Professor K. Roghovendro Roo is o self-chosen destiny. Was com-ments revel Rarnanujan's participation, but he had showing passion • . X ·,. . ::;: Fellow of the Indian Institute of already become. a part of the and violence is in '.Ramanujan opportunistic, ~ in very loose and Advanced Study. enterprise. Years ago, I wrote a his pieces. on his eating his cake and still vague terms such somewhatnegative piece on his poetry former wife, Molly.' • as "genius", (listed in Dwivedi's bibliography), and I remember the . having it, making his ''highlytalented", cont. from page 7 now on second thoughts and in light . evening I spent ';lt :'omelette without breaking etc. It is also ques­ the compulsions of elite politics. It of this new volume on him, I think his Chicago home .the egg? I don't think so, tionable whether · resulted from a complex evolution. In that one must make a clear distinction in 1968 over dinner. and yet the possibility.· Indian poetry in many resp ects it. pre-dates both In all the two hours English can be between the macro-historical literary separate electorates and . t - l'te fate ofRamanujan and his worth as an we spent together, keeps on haunting his , reasonably cano- . . . m rae 1 con:t-pehtlOn. This important fact has individual poet in a specific situation. Molly allowed . friends and admirers: . . nized. Thepoetsin "t · } · · ' ·:1 :. this tradition can often been ignored b h 1 , But recognizing this distinction does· poor Ramanujan, ( . 424) Th . . . y sc o ars not mean ignoring the structural by nature a gentle · · ·· pe examined only p · . e availability of more socio- economlc data (a limitat· . d d) relationship between the two aspects. and self-effacing creature, just half a as individuals of varying degrees of would h IOn m ee I shall first say something on dozen statements, and monopolized worth or worth-lessness, accord-ing int a~e made the dialectical the first aspect because it figures the whole conversation with to the politics and poetics of the critic e~retation doubly authentic. marginally in Dwiyedi's discussion. cannibalistic aggressiveness! or the scholar. Another minor irritant G Fmlally, let me mention J.S. His reference to Rarnanujan's patrio­ Rarnanujan's nature constrained him is the tendency to repeat comments rt~wa 's criticism of Oberoi's forrnu­ 1a 1on of the Sikh tism or his hi-rootedness, it seems to in his horizons, but within those and even exact words. However, the a sacred space. In a me, requires a more serious and horizons he produced exquisite work most.problematic part of the volume f9 ~:r presented at the liAS in October penetrating gloss. I do not think that of limited quantity and quality, is the commentary on Ramanujan as a ' he suggested that if the Tat Kha lsa's notio f th Ramanujan was in any conscious sense whether it be in poetry, linguistics or translator. I know asaKannadiga that, and · t n ° e sacred space a patriot, though this does not mean whatever. While th'e Indian poet in for all the smoothness and elegance of lbs m~agement "appeared novel to O ero1" ·t that he had nq attachment, whether English finds it difficultto be accepted his beguiling En:glish versions, his look · · ' 1 was because he did not translations from Kannada at least mto the Sikh · . . intellectual, emotional or cultural, to as Indian by Indians and as English by the lBth mshtuhons before the land of his birth and first thirty English, never mind the patronizing ,suffer from one major constraint. critic it cen~ry. According to thiS years. Also Raman·ujan's hi­ pats· on the back, an Indian poet There is in these versions a strong the c~ was sunply a re-emergence of rootedness is no simple phenomenon writing in English in Chicago would process of displacement at work_ a 19th ncept of Guru-Panth in the late of bridging cultures or synthesizing mean an even more complex, perhaps displacement of the original authors to th century Which was eclipsed due civilizations. His problems, whether even tragic, fate: While at a personal and texts by Ramanujan as the only Thi e establislunent of the Sikh rule. in poetry . or in life, seemed to me level it may be all right not to question text. I am not competent to talk about s argument d Oberoi m a f s~ems plausible, an purely personal, and hence his poetry Rarnanujan's not homing in India, as .his Tamil tra~sl~tion~, though 1 In Y. md 1t Worth exploring. a creative writer he should have and suspect that a similar s1tuation ma reduces large-scale things to a small, enigmaf.assmg let me mention could have returned home to suffer '' th' al y an personal scale. This is not in itself a eXIst m e1r case so. One last crucial Sikh lC statement in the text: "The bad thing, but it involves a cost, and and toil with us, his fellow-Indians, point. Rarnanujan wrote poetry both s are an r the cost is easic rootlessness and the marginalized non-entities of a in Kannada and in English, and 1 dare people" M unusually symbo JC · ay I ask, who are not? spatial-cultural suspension. This history dictated by. the West. I am say that the two are so interdependent comes in the way of Rarnanujan's raising these issues because some of that onedof th_ex:n cannot be properly transforming his admittedly the general limitations that Owivedi's graspe cntlca 11y or enjoy d Dr Birinder p 1 . - substantial creative resources into study points up should be seen as aesthetically without some attenti~ Indian lnstlt a Stngh is a Fellow of the - ute of Advanced Study._.,

•5 ...... - ...... -...... _~Surn~~m~e~r~ 9

BOOK REVIEWS

This voiume is a collection of Literature and Society: A Creative Interface dominated society can be a d irect or seventeen papers presented at a indirect consequence of the process of national seminar held at the liAS in "socialization". Modern society, 1991. The topic of social awareness in Bodh Prakash according to the author, is changing literature contains within itself a vast rapidly and "engendering disson­ area of contemporary critical studies SOCIAL AWARENESS ance", thesocial groupingswith which - the relevance of Gandhi, nationa­ IN MODERN INDIAN LITERATURE the individual traditionally identified lism , colonialism, nee-imperialism, are fast breaking up, resulting in an f modernism, progressivism, the post­ Edited by R.K. Kaul and Jaidev "isolated existence" and a "crisis of colonial discourse and post-moder­ identity". "The creative e~ploration nism, to name just a few. The variety Indian Institute of Adva11ced Study, Shimla, 1993, Rs.200 of female consciousness" in a "male­ of m ethodologies and perspectives domina ted, tradition-oriented reflected in the papers are indicative society" is by itself a political and of the sheer enormity of the discursive cynical age about the relevance of the moral nihilism that appears to be social statement. "The new story (a space that a seminar on such a topic literature. The only reservation one an inescapable corollary of that post­ category used for the H indi short story must accommodate. has concerns the rather simplistic modern tolerance and the brutal of the late 1950s) sensitively captures This volume w ill be of interest to assumption that the w riter as intolerance of the hit-squad". Roop that narrow zone in the female psyche all students of Indian literatures, vision ary stands outside h is class and Kanwar of Deorala, Khomeini's hit in which her socially built resilience especially those conversant only with society and aids t..t,e process ·of social squads, and communal massacres in and low self-esteem become visible to English. n,e case for critical studies in transformation through his works. an independent India are a visible her own self, which now accommo- Engiish on literatures in Indian The writer is both a product of his indictment of the valorization of . dates new stirrings for self-identity" fanguages cannot be overstressed, and socio-historical conditioning and his . indigenist and n ativist tendencies. (p. 65). What is particularly note­ in recent years, Meen akshi Mukherjee class, as well as a visionary, so that What is particularly distressing for worthy for the author is that an and Harish Trivedi, among others, while he can show the way forward the author is the Third World intel­ exploration of the female psyche need have done significant work in this for society, his perspective is also lectual's inability to recognize the n otcarrywithitthebannerofwomen's area. Such works open up a whole limited by his positioning and his work implications of this position. Protest liberation and may yet raise the n ew vista for students who are therefore cannot be read absolutely against the ban on the Satanic Verses woman's question quite powerfully. unacquainted with the tremendous innocently. was muted in·lndia and "it is doubtful Kumar's essay stands out in the variety of li teratures from different The second essay in this section, if the intellectual disturbance that the collection becau se of the d elicate regions and c_ontribute to a useful "Black Skin, Black Masks" by Alok widow-buming should have cau?ed balance that it maintains between h er interaction across literatures at the Rai, is th e tour de force of this book. lasted even as long as the smell of theoretical framework and textual creative and critical levels. One wishes Employing a forceful style the author charred flesh d id in Deorala ." analysis. Th~ author also p.ersuasively the editors had provided an English convincingly exposes the intellectual Confemporary critics like Aijaz argues agamst a reduchonist v iew transiation of the only essay in Hindi and moral blindness of the post-liberal Ahmad and Umberto Eco have held which sees a creative work as either in this volume as this would have pluralist, the post-modern cultural up a mirror to the distortions and socially relevant or irrelevant. made it avail able to a w ider reader­ relativist and the subaltem points of fallacies of post- modernism in recent ln Jaidev's article, "Of Pigs and· ship. The papers are organized around view. Citing the controversy over years. And Rai's essay lends good Men: 1~e ~t.e ll.ect~al in Contemp­ three sections: {1) Theoretical Rushdie's Satanic Verses, Rai shows support to the anti-post-modernist orary Hindi F1ction , there is a sharp Pe rspectives; (2) Literature: Indian how commentators who have seen position, especially in the Third World. denunciation of what the author Languages; and (3) Literature: Indian the incid e nt~ s "a clash ofcivilizational The perception of East and West as considers an id ealization of the Writing in English. The first section is values", have implicitly defended the exclusive categories has also been "Western:' notions of existentialism made up of two essays. The fi~s t, by K. death-chanting zealots of Khomeini undermined by the post-colonial and aestheticism, m the fic tion of Ayyappa Paniker,. '~Beyo nd the wh o stand for anything but cultural discourse and the study of diasporas. Nirmal Verma, Krishan Baldev Vaid Boundaries: CreatiVIty-Engage­ pluralism. This defence of pluralism, H y b ridit y is recognized as an essential ~d Mridula ~arg. The privileging of ment as Self-Transcendence", recalls indigenism, nativism, against all that. condition of post-colonial societies. High Moderrusm cu:td existentialism an older argument about art aspiring the West is allegedly supposed to Sukrita Kumar's "Between the according to 1aidev, results in pastich~ to the condition of universality. The stand for-modernity, science, ~ t er and Inner Realities: Perceptions characters. w~o are not sufficiently author challen ges the traditional rationalism (a position made popular from Modern Hindi and Urdu Short contextualized and float in a social Marxist position, held by, among by Ashis Nandy . and Partha Stories" takes a position on the v~c u~~ and assume an arrogant, others, Terry Eagleton, which regards Chatterjee)-has important conse­ question of social 3:wareness in d1srruss1ve and condescending atti­ ture and art as a part of the quences for the Third World. First, by modern Hindi and Urdu fiction, tude towards the poor and W\der­ cu l . h . unlike m ost of the other essays in the s uperstructure: "A ll c ~nges In subscribing to a binary opposition privileged . sections of society. As a . ty ;,..,eluding changes m modes between East and West, one rejects section of the collection which deals counterpomt, the author discusses socJe I U O of rod uction, take place because of a the con siderable amount of inter­ with literatures in Indian languages.) some novels of Mohan Rakesh, Shrilal penetration between the two. Post­ Implicitly dismissing the divide in Shukla, Kamleshwar and Renu to c h ~ge man '~- un~ e~s tand~ g. ~d colonial societies just carmot wish b etween the ' prog ressive' and t·onsoflUe-Itis man SVlSIOn s~ow how. these writers en gage expec t a 1 lik h away their colonial past and the 'modernist' stances, she argues that of what society shoul? .be. e t. at duect~y With the more r elevant the personal and social, far from being . eshis dBily activity mcludmg considerable influence it has exercised matenal problem s of e . t , distinct, are intimately related in j' . XlS en~e determm ement with socw- -po1 ·Jh ·ca 1 and continues to exercise on them. po lli~s, etc. Their heroes are sociall; his engag h 'modernist' Hindi and Urdu fiction. . And it is a work of art t at Further, as the author puts it, there 1s and historically placed and are able to doctnJ1es. h . · · f "an irreducible similarity between the 111e author briefly examines Shrikant ·f lly prefigures t IS vlsiOn o !ee through the pseudo-Weste rn powe1 u nineteenth century racists' con s­ Verma's "His Cross", Joginder Paul's ~acade o~ the pastiches they encowlter 2 3 his'' (pp. - ). temporary critical truction of 'primitive non-whites' and "Prayee", Mohan Rakesh 's "Miss m the eli~e, urban society. In the con . 'Eastern non-ration alisms' of the post­ Pall", Ashok Mitran's "One Touch of . One IS not quite clear wh ether the . . ost-modernist theory 1s Garlic" and C.M. Nairn's "Th e dJscouJ se, p blc and thus it is some- liberal, p luralis t kind" (p.10). mtellectu~l being referred to in the Outcasts" to show how the inner ite fashJOna ik , Secondly, and this is the seminal essay is the protagonist of the creative qu al tocomeacrossPan er s anguish of a private individual or a V''hatunusu ·t·on Neverth elessitis political point made in the essay, there · lpOSI 1 · traditional woman in a male- theoret!Ca . der in a more than is an essential continuity "between contd. on page 10 aJl irn portant remm

:::..:---suri1ln erh~igll_... ------~------­ 10

BOOK REVIEWS

In recent years the temple art and Disappointing Look at Himadri Temples Chandragupta II Vikramaditya. architecture of Himachal Pradesh has Kachhapagupta (p. 12) seems to be a received considerable attention from mistake for Kachgupta. Lnxman S. Thakur art historians. Subhashini Aryan's The third chapter describes the present work is an example. This architectural features ofstone temples. monograph tries to analyse the stages HIMADRI TEMPLES Apart from the Vaidyanatha temple, ofdevelopment of the Nagar a temples (A.D.700-1300) Baijnath, there are two other notable from c. A.D. 700 to 1300. examples of the Nagara style posses­ The authoremphatically states (p. SUBHASHlNl ARYAN sing windows. Both are Saivite and 10) that the term "Himadri" was are located at Mangarh (Sirmaur) and coined by Krishna Deva and M.A. Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 1994, Rs.600 S~vara _(Shimla) respectively. While Dhaky in Encyclopaedia ofIndian Temple discussrng the varieties of the sikhara Architecture: North Indian Stt;le, c. 250 of the Nagara temples the author could B.C.-A.D. 1100, Delhi, 1988, vol.ii, not trace any example of the Valabhi pt.l, but gives no page number. No Timber-bonded or Pent-roofed, and the decades of the 1980s and early or barrel-vaulted type in Himachal such. reference has been made by the the Pagoda. The fourth style, i.e. the 1990s. (pp. 28, 38). The present reviewer has above authors to the Himadri style. Indo-Mughal, became popular from In an effort to show the interaction already discussed. two examples of Krishna Deva, however, in the the 16th century onwards. of the region with the Gupta empire in the Valabhi type in his doctoral thesis subsequent volume, Encyclopaedia of The book is divided into eight Chapter II she has misread the epi­ entitled "Temple Architecture in Indian Temple Architecture: North India chapters. The introductory chapter graphic evidence from the Salari rock Himachal Pradesh", submitted to the - Period of Early Maturitt;, c. A.D. briefly outlines the geographical inscription. What she misconstrues Himachal Pradesh University in 700-900, Delhi, 1991, chap. 29, has conditions along with a sketchy from the inscription is that" the Gupta September _1984. Navagrahas, which classified the Nagara temple of discussion of the religious background Emperor Chandragupta received are prommently carved on the Himachal into a "Himachal style". of the region. On page 3 the author military assistance in.such campaigns uttaranfi gas of several temples, do no t To the present reviewer neither remarks that the "state of Himachal from some of the hilly chiefs" (p.l2). gure either in a sub-section on the "Himadri" nor "Himachal" style has did not exist before 1966", ignoring The inscription has nothing to do with decorative motifs or in a chapter on any vastusastric, stylistic or the fact that Himachal came into the Gupta dynasty. It records that a sculpture. maharaja, Sri Chandesvarahastin, geographical justification. From existence on 15 April 1948 after the Chapters IV to VI analyse the among the many varieties of the integration of about thirty indepen­ who was the son of maharaja Sri architectural development of temples Nagara temples described in the dent principalities. What happened lsvarahastin of the Vatsa gotra, built a under"formative "'"transitional" and Puranas, Himadri does not figure as in 1966 was the merg~r of the Pahari­ city.(Bhatasalipuri) in a locality called "culmina tlOn" " P h ases. What was the distinct style. Three temple styles speaking hilly areas of Punjab with Srenyaka after his victory in battle cont~ibution of each phase has (excluding the Buddhist monasteries), Himachal. over Rajjila. Both rulers were of local rema~e~ unexplained. Ms Aryan had In her review of earlier works Ms origin and h ave no political or with several sub-styles, were most a spectftc question to probe, which common in Himachal between c. A.D. Aryan has excluded all studies on the matrimonial or lineage connections either with Chandragupta I or 700-1300. They are the Nagara, the temple art of Himachal published in contd. on page 11 contd. from page 9 has become the representative post­ realities of his time. of political and social activists and modernist text. B. Chandrika's piece, The last section of the book deals researchers alike in the 1980s and work or the creative writer himself, or "The Puranic Novel: Contemporary with Indian Writing in English. The 19 For both creative writers and Redactions of the Puranic Narrative essays engage with the impact of ?~s . both. In the context of modernist cnttcs, interpreting Gandhi has fiction this is an important question Mode", examines three novels, two of colonial rule on Indian society and become an e\' since all the criticism that Jaidev directs them in Malayalam and one in English, with perspectives on Gandhi. T.N. . en greater challenge- ptece by Kumkum Yadav, at this intellectual would be misplaced to show how ancient myths from the Dhar's article on Mulk Raj Anand ~~~e if the creative writer (Verma, Vaid, Mahabharata are modernized through outlines the unambiguous social and . andhian lnflunce on Indo-English Novelists", doesn't meet it. . Garg) could ironically distance himself shifts in perspective or a distortion of political commitment of the novelist from his pastiche characters. The the original or by simply super­ his exposure of the injustice of British . The social relevance of literature second problem with the argument imposing the political events of 20th­ rule as well as of the negative, regres­ Is an area which can perhaps never be lies in the outright rejection of century India on the basic structure of sive tendencies within the Indian fully exhausted. From the 1930s, with existentialism and aestheticism in an the Mahabharata. social system. But the author argues the emergence of the Indian Indian context. While both exis­ Three other essays in this section that .Anand's commitment to social Progressive Writers' Association until toda 1· t h ' trace the evolution of· Marathi and transformation does not commit him Y as remained at the centre- tentialism and aestheticism have their stage of the . . Th It cnhcal discourse. e origins in Europe, they may perhaps Telugu poetry and poetry from Rajas­ to any specific ideology. may be persp f be sufficiently "lndianized" if they than (the language used by the p~ets recalled here that Mulk Raj Anand ec Ives on how literature can be re1 evant or h kin are of any relevance to our experiences was Din gal) through different phases was a founder member of the Indian w at dofliteraturecan b e re1 e vant t . in the modem age. in the 20th century and how they were Progressive Writers' Associati.on and ch 0 soctety may have The Mahabharata, like many great influenced by, among other factors, subscribed to a "progressive" ideology _anged. Scholarship in the 1930s mtght have classical works, has been found European Romanticism, Progres­ in the sense irt which Premchand inter­ . . seen the issue from the tradthonal M · relevant by practically all ages and sivism and the Indian National preted it in his Presidential Addres·s . - arxtst position and today one mtghtb · . the 20th century is no exception. While Movement. While these essays are to the IPWA in 1936: "All writers are di . . e mterpreting itviaamultl- traditional scholarship emphasized quite informative, there is little by nature progressive" {translation B S~I~ma ry and less rigid approach. the element of universality in what attempt at analysis. This is however, mine). . u e essential question remains unportant. was seen as an archetypal story, not the case with E. V. Ramakrishnan' s The innumerable dimensions of contemporary critics and writers alike paper on Kedamath Singh's poetry in Gandhi- political activist, social have deconstructed the text and read Hindi, which traces the poet's growth reformer, orthodox spiritual Hindu Mr Bodh Prak I - feminist and radical political from an early formalist phase to an believer in non-violence, etc. -hav~ En li . as llcaches in lhc Depurt mcnt of discourses between the lines--the epic involvement with the socio-political evoked renewed interest on the part o efhth, Zakl r Husain College, University of a Summerhill- 11

BOOK REVIEWS

The 20th century might well go d own Wittgenstein on Philosophical Psychology used in ways unintended and in the history of Western philosophical unauthorized by their author. Also, ·thought as the century that belonged Mrinal Miri ideas similar to Wittgenstein's were primarily to Ludwig Wittgenstein. being developed around· the same While the Tractatus had a decisive time, perhaps fairly independently of influence on Anglo-American WITTGENSTEIN'S LECTURES what was going on in the lectures. It is philosophy of the 1930s and 1940s, this, perhaps, that provoked the rather Plzilosoplzical Investigations, published ON PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY 1946-47 remarkable statement in the Preface posthumously, _dominated the same · Edit~d by P.T. Geach, notes by P.T. Geach, K.J. Shah and A.C. Jackson to ·Philosophical Investigations: "For ' ' philosophical scene through the 1950s more than one reason what I publish and 1960s. The remarkable thing Haivester-Wheatsheaf, London, 1988, 348 pp. here will have points of contact with however, is that what has come to be what other people are writing today. known as the 'later' thought of and literary criticism- as also in the Wittgenstein: he had published If my remarks do not bear a stamp Wittgenstein, or the 'later latest developments in the philosophy nothing after the Tractatus, and which marks them as mine, I do not Wittgenstein', has not just made a of the ~atural sciences. Much of this Philosophical Investiga tions was wish to lay any further claim to them crucial difference to academic influence is, of course, subterranean, published posthumously. In the few ~s my property" (Philosophical philosophy in the Anglo-American and it is impossible to articulate it years that he taught at Cambridge Investigations, p. x). world, it seems to have played a with any degree of precision or before he resigned his chair in ln 1946-47Wittgenstein delivered determiriing role in the practice of adequacy, but it will not be much of philosophy, small groups ofdedicated his last course of lectures before theoria, as such, in European thought, an exaggeration to say that there is a students attended his lectures which retirement. "Each year at the begin­ and, thereby, has helped bring subtle Wittgensteinean aura about the took on the character of intimate but ning of his course of lectures Wittgen­ together these two streams of thought Western intellectual self-conscious­ intense dialogue between himself and stein would have a great many in a living relahonship. Thus, ness of the 20th century-especially the pupils on a variety of topics. Some listeners, largely female; this crowd Wittgensteinean ideas are inescapably of its second half. of the ideas developed in these iectures would rapidly shrink to a hard core of present in path-breaking theoretical Only a small number of people, inevitably escaped intc:> the wider regular a ttenders [almost all male) b y thinking in the human sciences - however, had sustained direct access arena of academic philosophical particularly anthropology, sociology to the thought of the 'later ' debate and began to circulate and be contd. on page 12

contd. from page 10 though drawn without scale, are not Knlpitam does not make any sense since construction. Significantly, terms such proportionate to their actual settings. bhatta Sri Sthana cannot be considered as candrasala, praggriva, mandapa and prompted her to work on the Nagara The plan.s of the Masrur complex a person who conceived and planned navanabha (nine navels, i.e. the plan of temples. This is amply clear from her (rough index plan) and the ground the image or a torana. He seems to the temple divided into 9 x 9 = 81 own remarks: "I tried my best to get plan of the Vaidyanantha temple (fig. have fixed the image upon the squares) are widely menti.:>ned in the hold of the architectural treatise that ·n , p. 85), the Siddhanath a temple pedestal. In the case of vadatiya (my Indian vastusastras. The corrected furnis hed the guidelines to the (fig. p, p. 91) and theGanapati temple readings), the engraver has committed translation has been published by us Himachal sthapatis, but did not (fig. 13, p. 93) are reproduced from a mistake by using the word dha for elsewhere (see History and CultL1re of succeed due to the narrow and queer Dilip K. Chakrabarti and S. Jamal da. In another instance the artisan has the Chamba State, New Delhi, 1989, outlook of Himachalis" (p.vii). Hasan's The Antiquities ofKnngra, New used thi instead of ti in the last word. pp.155-60). · Considering the importance of the · Delhi, 1984, without acknowledge­ Therefore the meaning of the No consistent method has been above statement this monograph ment. Chakrabarti and Hasan inscription is quite clear and we offer adopted by Ms Aryan in spelling and seems to be an utter disappointment, themselves reproduced the rough the followi.pg translation: "The image the use of diacritical marks. A dozen for she did not provide measurements index and ground plans of the Masrur was caused to be fixed upon (placed) examples of variations could be cited. for any monument. She lost the complex from the works of H.L. by bhatta Sri Sthana. Padmanabha The locations of places such as opportunity to ~x~ l ore the unde_rly~g Shuttleworth (article published in Raghava, a son of the kayastha ... Dahila Kanhiara, Chari (actually the exact vastusastric pnnoples embodied ill Indian Antiquary, vol.xliv, 191?, pp. gave instructions for shaping the name is Chahri, which can be these temples. How could she have 10-23) and H. Hargreaves Annual image." distinguished from Chari, situated on proved it without taking in her hands Report, Archaeological Survey of The borrowing of the texf and the Dharamsala-Pathankot road a sutradhara's cord? The present India, 1915-16, pp. 39-48). translation of a Sarada inscription whereas the place referred to in th~ eviewer has successfully tested the The weakest chapter, both from engraved on the pedestal of the Nandi text is located near Pathyar, only 2 km r alidity of the textual prescriptions the point of view of presentation and image (Bharmaur) fromJ.Ph. Vogel's away from Nagrota-Bagwan on v d the actual constructional techni­ in its interpretation of the existing Antiquities of Chamba State, Part I, National Highway20), Balag, Sarahan Calcutta, 1911, p.144, is equally anqu e s practised by the sutradharas .in epigraphic material preserved in the and _Dhabas are wrong on a m ap Himachal for the Nagara temp1 es ill temples, is on inscriptions. A recons- unacceptable. Vogel himself failed to pr_ov1ded at the beginning of the book. an article," Application of_ the Vastu- . tructed text of an inscription in recognize the importance of several I~ 1s extremely difficult foi: a reader to Siddhamatrika script engraved on architectural terms mentioned in this purusaman dala in the Indian. Temple. filld a reference to a particular region ·t cture· An Analys1s of the either side of the torana of the inscription, as he states: "The ~r a temple-site in the absence .of an Arc h 1 e · . 1 mple Plans of Hrmacha Mahisasur-mardini bronze image, Hat rendering of the third pada of the first Nagara Te . 3 illdex. No ~eference has been given to , Artibus Astae, vol.SO, nos. - Koti, cannot be accepted. Subhashini stanza is problematic. For the plat~s and Illustrations in the text. The Prad esh , Aryan has inserted ·several letters navanabha nama ... I cannot offer any 90 p 263-84. caphons to colour plates 3 and 21 are 4, 19 ' P · und plans of the Siva which are not part of the actual text plausible explanation... . Nor is it clear The gro ~rong. The former shows Saivalaya t which is referred to (p.116). Knlpitam for kararpitam and what is meant by candrasa la and lnstead of Hatesvari Devi, and the t mple P araha , . 2 e ' t" throughout the text (fig. , vardhayitva for vadatiya suggested by praggrivaka" (p. 144, fn. 2). The Nandi latter the Narasirnha rather than the "Bara · f" 7 as the Siva temple,H atKoh( Ig. ' the author cannot be accepted for the image inscription is one of the rarest Manimahesa temple. The biblio­ p.42), h Champavati temple, following reasons. The letter ra in surviving epig raphic documents graph y certainly needs to be updated. kararpitam is absolutely clear and a which acquaints us with the P· 61), t _e 70) the Hari Rai Chamba (f~g. B, P· 76), and the similar letter is engraved on the right­ architectural terminology used by the 9 temple ( ~ J g . ' t(fig. 10, p. 78), hand side in the case of raghava. sutradharas at the site of temple D~ Lax man S." Thakur teaches history al the Vajreswan temp1 H1machal Pradesh Uni versity, Shimla. -summerhill ~ I

12

BOOK REVIEWS

the third or fourth lecture". (Editor's of organization in the lectures-- quite thing is not that a particular feeling is remarks about lying [Shah, pp.196-7], Preface, p.xii) Among this 'hard core' the contrary: the nature of the subject or is not recognized- the important the rejection of the idea that.intention s there were three attending the 1946- itself demands such change and thing-and here we come to another are causes and so on) are-or can be 47 lectures, who kept notes of them. movement back and forth. Psycho­ recurring Wittgensteinean theme - seen as __:_ so many fortifications They were P.T. Geach, K.J. Shah and logical concepts are inter-related in a is whether or not the use of words against any possible infiltration by A.C. Jackson. It is these notes that great variety of ways; while there are here is firmly anchored in 'ordinary', the dualist idea of the possible have been brought together in this similarities, there are also differences 'normal' human life. sundering of the normal relations volume after over forty years of what of a'categorical' nature. And the same We say a man has learned to use ·between the 'mind' and the 'body'. the publishers have called "somewhat concept, say, thinking, invariably such words, only when he behaves Some time ago I read a "true" of an 'underground'" existence. P.T. gathers within its net a complexity of like a normal human being. If a child story about a lady who, on waking up Geach, the editor, has "used a very elements which cannot be captured in looked radiant when it was hurt, and one morning discovered, with terror, light hand as editor" and the "three a 'defj.nition' or a 'philosophical' shrieked for no apparent reason, one that she was no longer able to tell the records as they stand are bona fide explanation: " If you try to apply an couldn't teach him the use of the word position of her limbs which, conse­ reports of what three y6ung men could explanation you plunge into amass of 'pain'. Even if we taught him to use it quently ,· acquired a horrifying make of a great philosopher's living exceptions" (Shah). Or· take the instead of shrieking it would still not independence of movement. The story words" (p.xv). following response to the suggestion have consequences like taking him to tells of the partial recovery that the The ground covered in these that intending is an 'experience': the doctor; it would be a new use. One lady made by a painful process of lectures is now familiar to all readers Let us mean by experience some­ couldn't teach him our use of relearning how to correlate muscular of Wittgenstein: thinking, willing, thing like imagery or perception. An psychological words. (Geach) and kinaesthetic sensations with intending, sensation, emotion, experience is something that Cat:' have "If we want to teach a child a positions of her limbs. The recovery memory, meaning, privacy, the first­ duration in time - like a continued psychological word, he must behave was partial because the lady was, for person-third-person asymmetry, the note or colour. The same note like a normal being: even if because of ever afterwards, in real doubt whether natureofphilosophy,andsoon. What again... still ... still ... now no longer. This courage he represses the expression the correlations she had learned would is remarkable about them is: (i) the is NOT a natural expression for of pain. But even this has to be based "work" the next time round. The story, insight they give into Wittgenstein's intention - or for knowing for that upon, derived from, a suppression of of course, may not be tru~; and, in any method of teaching; (ii) the extra­ matter. If a man says he sees a red the expression of pain". (Shah) "There case, there are details to be filled in, ordinary powers of imagination that disk, I might frequently ask if he still will be exceptions" (Geach) [but which might change its entire import he brings to bear upon small but sees it, but if he says he intends to visit interestingly Shah: "It is always, and ~the lady's affliction might, for significant points of detail; and (iii) his grandmother tomorrow, I won't here too, a question of 'rule and mstance, be understood in the same the subtly different impressions that keep on asking if he still does. An exception'"]. "But the centre of way as a normal person's ignorance the lectures made on three gifted and image that lasts for five minutes may reference is ordinary human life, and of the position of an anaesthetized sensitive pupils. obsess a man, but an intention qua [the] further we go from ordinary limb). But on the face of it at least, it human life, the less meaning we can These lectures,like the others, are intention, does not obsess him - s~ems to bring mind-body dualisJ!\ give such expression". (Geach) · in the form of a dialogue·· where though thoughts connected with _it ngh~ back to the centre, and it is The idea, implicit in the dualist Wittgenstein is the supreme autho­ may. This distinction between thought posstbl: that Wittgensteln might have picture of mind and body, that it is ritative participant. Yet, under ·the and intention is categorical. A move found lt profoundly disturbing: it possible- even if only logically­ powerful and resolute guidance of in chess .has no velocity, u~e the seems to-let in the dualist ideal of the for the mind and the body to lose, as it the great man, the others do not remain physical movement that executes it .. . possible dissociation of the mind and what I mean about chess is that one were, their normal points of contact, just 'actors' but become, as it were, the bodY' through all his fortifications, -might ask in mid-move which move I to become dissociated, seems to have 'the joint authors, working out in and puts it in a position from where it agreement or disagreement tlre mode am making, and a reply is possible. haunted Wittgenstein in <01 his thin­ ca~ threaten the entire 'Wittgen· of their productions' (Alasdair Mac­ But the temporal determination: 'I king about mind and mental concepts stem~an world'- if such -a phrase is Intyre on conversation in After Virtue, move to· thaf square now' (in mid­ -whether in these lectures, in Philoso­ permttted- behind the fortifications- London, 1981, p.196). There was, of move) is odd. So in 'I intend now' the phical Investigations, or in various other While there is a m arked corres· course, no question of following a set 'now' isn't as in 'I think now'. One works published pos thumously. tondence between the notes taken by syllabus. As Geach puts it in his mustn't think of intention and thought Indeed, sometimes it looks as though e_ach and Shah, Jackson's seem to editorial preface: as two different parts in a score. by far the greater part of his enormous s ik . tr e,asttwere,asomewhatdifferent Wittgenstein lectured without (Geach) int e l~ ec tual energy is devoted to combating this idea. "I am in pain" is note .. They are in a way 'better notes: but manifestly not without The temptation to look for unitary orgaruzed' b · preparation. He expected of his answers in philosophy is great; but not a report, but an "utterance" that , ut, m the process theY seem to lose a little the se~se of audience close attention and coope­ this temptation must be resisted, for replaces natural expressions of pain; spontan ·t · · ration. Since after the first lecture of a to yield to it is to invite darkness and the asymmetry between some first­ et Y and surprise which IS course the way the discussion went confusion: mind is neither inner person, present tense psychological pohwerfully present throughout the ot er tw 0 sets. This is however, depended on what had been brought private process nor behaviour. "I am sentences and corresponding third­ unsurp · · ' up in the previous meeting, there not doing behaviourism. 'I have pain' person ones (" I am in pain" and "He . n smg, for Jackson 'used to wnte up his · could have been no question of his doesn't mean 'I cry'; it replaces crying is in pain") is not one betw.een my notes from memory lJ"l the evening f th . the following a prearranged syllabus. or other expressions of pain". (Geach) superior, private knowledge of myself 1 ° e day on whtch Wittgenstein was p a tient with Or, " It is misleading to say words and inferior public knowledge of ;rctures W e~~ given' (Publishers' people's genuine difficulties, and often mean behaviour. Words replace the another, but is one of the fundamental eface, P· vu1), and "the attribution to Dr w·tt . brought out from a listener's remark behaviour, say, a cry". (Shah)"Bu t then, givens of human life. Some things · 1 gen s tein of verbatJJl'l 1 sentences· · much more than might have been think of " I am trying hard". Does it know about myself, say, the position . lS mtended to convey one au d 1tor's d h expecte ~ (p. xii). "replace expressions of feeling? The of my limbs, are not based on anyth · . . un erstanding of t e The topic under discussion circumstances here are completely (e.g., a_ feeling ?r the " ob servation '~~ opmlon expressed" (A.C. Jackson as changes frequently - from thought different, e.g. having been given an a .feehng); I JUSt know them· th quo~d by publishers, p.viii). to meaning to intending to sensation, order, beginning to do what I have question· h ow d oes not arise or' . f .e t . here are, however other . I 1 1 1 emotion, knowing, memory and back learned to do; and the kind of interest d oes, 1t cannot have an answer_ all mteresting differences in the three again - not, of course, ~ the same are completely different". (Geach) In these and more (e.g., the parabl f records. Some of these differences order. This is not because of any lack either case, however, the important the IIso u 11ess II tn"b e, the intriguinge 0 must be put down to individual specificities of perception. But .one Summerhill-- 13

BOOK REVIEWS

would like to think - in respect of and the description you can give of it. privilege to bring it into living contact and indeed, on his entire personality. Shah's notes, for instance- that his Oackson) with the Western tradition- it is only KJ. Shah might have gone his own own civilization al background What I find intriguing here is the then that our intellectual life will way, unlike most other pupils of entered into them, however unself­ sentence in the Shah version of the acquire an authenticity and become Wittgenstein; but the quality of his consciously, to give them, in part at record: "The problemherehasnothing truly creative and possibly give a journey surely owes much to his two least, the disti!:lctive character that they to do with conflict between different surprisingly fresh turn to modem years of close contact with the have. I wish to point out here just one persons, it has to do with conflict intellectual life as such. One looks philosopher of the century. difference in the three records which within the person himself". Although forward, with great expectations, to The otherwise ;lttrac.tively might conceivably be seen in this light. nothing corresponding to this is seeing the product of Professor Shah's prod':lced book is marred by several Early on in the lectures Wittgenstein present in the other two versions, it . own continuing efforts in this direc­ printing errors. The addition of an makes .a remark about how philoso­ has undoubtedly to do with the tion. One knows other pupils of index - difficult as the task of phical problems arise. And here are Wittgensteinean view - not- much Wittgenstein' s through their writings, producing one might have been - the three records of it: talked about in these lectures-that a that is, those among them who have would have been of enormous h ~ lp to Philosophical problems arise. philosophical problem arises out of a published·. And whatever personal the reader. when a man has the King's English sort of self-inflicted intellectual impri­ contact one hash ad with one or two of use of 'thinking' but describes it· sonment of the mind ('fly in the fly­ them has been much too superficial to wrongly. Why should a man bottle') and that to see one's way out leave any lasting impression; but 'Professor Mrinal Miri was at the Depart­ misdescribe? of it is also to achieve liberation from having known Professor Shah fairly ment of Philosophy of the North-East­ A description of the use.of a word such imprisonme!lt ('to·show the fly . intimately for the past several years, ern Hill UniversitY. Shillong. when he is given when ":Ve define it-when we the way out of the fly-bottle'). The one can see now-thanks to these wrote this review. It appeared origi­ show a sample (e.g. of colour). But a connection between self-delusion, notes-the deep and abiding influence nally in The Journal of the Indian Coun­ chjJd 'picks up' psychological expres­ self-awareness and liberation is, of this privileged proximity · to cil ofPhilosophical Research, 8(3), May­ sions. No explanation is ever given. course, a matter of almost axiomatic Wittgenstein during his Cambridge August 1991 . Cf. the word 'perhaps'. If a child asl_